Leads You Home
by Distant Storm
Summary: Rated for language and graphic medical-related descriptions. When Mokuba gets into a nasty accident, all kinds of hell breaks loose. The relationship between brothers is not as it seems. And to make matters worse, who is this taking care of Mokuba, and why isn't she dancing?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, this piece and all chapters to follow are not being produced for monetary gain.

Note: This is just an attempt to get back into the swing of things, the idea has been in my head for a while. I have been writing on and off since my last anime posting on FF dot net, but I haven't come up with something with a beginning and an end. This is my changing that.

**Leads You Home**

A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction

Author: Distant Storm

Pairing/Shipping: Seto x Anzu; Azureshipping

* * *

"What do we have here?" The woman's voice was curt, direct, and a slight bit louder than a typical speaking voice.

There was some fidgeting, the sound of tools banging around, like ripping open a desk drawer in anger, or slamming it in rage to hear everything roll around inside. "Twenty year old white male, status post MVC. Pressure one-eighty over one-seventeen. Pulse one-thirty" A pause, the ripping of clothing, like a pair of sheers down a high-quality button down shirt. Some beeping, and the sound of ripped tape. The flourish of a sheet. "Obvious rib fractures, possible pneumo, deformities of the left arm, shoulder, and leg." More cutting, this time sounding difficult, like a coarser fabric or denim. "Positive loss of consciousness at scene."

The man was quickly interrupted by the woman. "Any periods of consciousness on the way here?"

His head shook. "No." The second woman stood up beside the gurney, regarding the medic while setting an unsightly large pair of sheers onto a metal cart. "Just one moment at the scene. Called out a name."

"Okay," The first woman said, nodding to the second. "Call Carlin, tell him he needs to eval this kid stat, I know we've got two rooms ready to go."

The second woman was gone in a flash of pale blue scrubs, leaving the room as fast as she had entered. The first woman wore dark maroon scrubs and spoke to the medic carefully. "Thank you," She began, regarding him with hardened eyes. "We'll take it from here. Have your people fax his info from the ride to extension 8732. We'll take good care of him."

"Yes ma'am," The paramedic said gently. "It's a long ride from Boston, we'd better get going." The slight drawl of the man's accent made her smirk. "We'll have to keep the lights on all the way, just to make it back before sunrise."

"Godspeed, sir," She said, with a curt nod. As the black-uniformed medic left the room, pushing a bright yellow gurney, a tall black haired man entered, white coat draped over his left shoulder, and stethoscope worn like a scarf.

He regarded her with gentle eyes, and examined the young man on the emergency room gurney. "Twenty year old male, status post MVC. Vitals all over the place, positive LOC, heartbeat weak and fluttery. Multiple fractures, scattered on the left side, seat belt lac, spleen rupture possible."

A nurse stood in the doorway, awaiting orders. The man placed his stethoscope on the injured patient's chest, and met her gaze. "Send him for X-rays of the left shoulder, chest, wrist, femur, and tib-fib. Add a full back to that. Get a CT head, non-contrast, and tell the techs stat on everything. They've got an hour. I'm calling trauma team, they'll meet up with you in CT in half an hour. Have someone call in the ultrasound tech, he looks like he might need that spleen dealt with. Get him outta here."

There wasn't even a second that passed before the nurse passed the room to the gurney, using her foot to disable the breaks. The gurney rose gently, and the nurse was off, wheeling her patient down the main ER hallway with gusto.

The doctor replaced his white lab coat and regarding his assistant with bright green eyes. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"You and me both, Carlin, you and me both."

* * *

There were few things in the world that actually upset Seto Kaiba. Most importantly, was anything concerning younger brother Mokuba. So when the call came in – and unfortunately, he was prepared for this, he always prepared for emergencies – he told Boston PD that his brother would be going to NYU's medical campus. Nothing personal, just better care. It wouldn't have mattered if it were a scratch. He would've been sent there immediately. But judging by the officer's tone, it was definitely more than a scratch.

What really pissed him off – out of concern, of course – was that the medics at the scene told him it was unnecessary to use a helicopter, that transport would be sufficient with an ambulance. He wasn't stupid, though the thought had crossed the CEO's mind to suggest using his own personal helicopter. Knowing they wouldn't go for it, Seto did the only thing he could do: told them to move their fucking asses, and tell Isono to gas up the helicopter. He was in DC, and it would take a little time to get there.

When he entered the emergency room, he was surprised to see it only half full. It was nothing like a television program, where people were rushing around, screaming **stat** this, and **stat** that, and **clear!** No, it was surprisingly _calm._

He strode up to the desk, with an air of power surrounding him. The first nurse he saw, a blonde in light pink scrubs, smiled gently at him, and stood. Her name tag read "Laurissa."

"Where is my brother, Mokuba." His English, as usual, was flawless, and this question was phrased as a statement.

The woman sat for a moment and began typing frantically on the computer before her. "It looks like he is in bay three," She paused, and looked over to the empty bay. "Hang on one second, I'm not actually his nurse, so let me just find out where they took him."

Her incompetence angered him. His fists tensed at his sides as he tried his damnedest not to rip the computer monitor off the desk, knowing there were laws regarding patient privacy. But in any event, this was his only living relative, and he was _hurt_, and Seto knew nothing as of yet.

The woman stat down at the desk before him again, after a moment. "Okay," she began. "You can wait in his room, he's in CT right now for testing. The docs will be right with you."

The CEO again felt like this woman's polite smile and masked brown eyes were taunting him as he went to wait in the small white room, with a sliding supermarket style door that was perpetually open. It was annoying to him that _he_ of all people had to wait. At this point, everyone knew who he was, who is brother was! At times like this, it would be wise for all people to know about what was going on with any celebrities that came through their doors. Especially celebrities with exceptionally powerful older brothers.

It was at this moment, the one that had Seto Kaiba sitting awkwardly in an uncomfortable chair taking in the disinfectant laden scent of his surroundings, that his eyes fell on a mass of clothing strewn across the floor. The teal colored silk of the shirt, in particular, caught his eye being at such stark contrast to the eggshell color of the tiled floor. He stood and picked up the bundle of clothing, his businessman's facade masking his surprise at finding that the clothing was wet.

Wet? Seto grasped the shirt at the back collar, finding the designer shirt's tag. This was definitely Mokuba's. And, he realized, it was cut directly down the front in an awkward, unorganized line.

"This is a seven hundred dollar shirt," The CEO scoffed. Money to him was nothing, but these people had no idea what they were doing, and they certainly couldn't afford – wait. His train of thought was derailed by the sight of blood heavily covering the left side to back of the shirt.

Like it was poisonous, the elder brother dropped the garment on the floor. That was a lot of blood. Glutton for punishment, he plucked up the pair of distressed jeans off the floor, only to realize that they too, were slashed up the pant legs. All the way up.

The pink clad nurse was waiting for him when he returned to the desk. "They had to cut his clothes off, Mr. Kaiba. They didn't want to jostle him too much. He has a few fractures, from what I heard."

A sigh of relief escaped the CEO, much to the surprise of the nurse. He still deemed her incompetent, but he supposed he could deal with her. Just fractures? That meant a few months of limited mobility and some therapy, but nothing too bad. For a second he almost wondered why he even bothered flying up. Mokuba was an adult now. He could handle himself.

"**HOUSE STAFF ATTENTION: CODE BLUE, FIRST FLOOR, CT. HOUSE STAFF ATTENTION: CODE BLUE, FIRST FLOOR, CT."**

The sound of heavy footsteps alerted the elder Kaiba that someone was running. "Laur, who else do we have in CT?"

"Uh, Doctor Scoffield, we only have one-"

Kaiba was on his feet in a tenth of a second, at the desk, in the nurse's face. "That's my brother!" He roared, turning to the doctor only to find he was already running in what Seto presumed was the direction of the CT. "What the hell is a code blue?"

"Cardiac arrest, sir," Laurissa whispered.

It didn't matter what volume she had said it in, he heard, but couldn't comprehend it. Light and sound seemed to stand still as he took off in the direction of the doctor.

* * *

End Notes: So, since it's been quite a while since I've posted, I thought I would just through this short bit out here as a prelude and see what the response is. If you have any interest in reading, please don't hesitate to follow or provide feedback. I work in a hospital, so I'm trying to make this as realistic as possible. If you have any questions or want clarification, please let me know.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes: Thank you all for your lovely reviews, follows, hits, and support. This chapter is fast paced, and uses a bit of medical terminology. Please, feel free to ask any questions if something is too technical or doesn't make sense.

**Leads You Home**

A Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction

Author: Distant Storm

Pairing/Shipping: Seto x Anzu; Azureshipping

XXX

"Somebody call anesthesia, stat!"

She pushed hard and fast on the young man's chest, alternating every minute or so with the ambu-bag that pumped air into his lungs before switching and allowing the CT nurse who had called the code to follow up with another round of chest compressions.

"Do we have a pulse?"

"No pulse," Was the reply that came, sounding rushed but not as concerned as it could have been.

"Push epi."

Another nurse seemed to materialize. "Pushing epi."

"Okay, two minutes and then we can shock."

"We've already shocked once."

"Two minutes," The reply came, the brunette making eye contact with the nurse who had just pushed the drug. Her eyes were a heavy, dark shade of cerulean.

The crash from outside the double doors that led to the CT department caused a few members of the code team to look over. She paused, pursing her lips, and then took over chest compressions. A moment later, Doctor Arthur Carlin burst through the doors, an explosive Seto Kaiba on his heels.

"Someone get me a flush," came a female nurse's voice.

"What happened?"

The nurse administering epi turned to the black haired doctor, rooting through the supply cart for the code. She gulped, seeing the lethal look on the elder Kaiba's face. "We had him in the machine, and he tanked on us. Sats in the seventies, then he went into asystole."

"Current sats?"

"They were in the low sixties a minute ago."

"Someone get me suction!"

"Check for a pulse," a male nurse's voice crooned, making eye contact with the brunette who had ceased doing chest compressions.

From out of nowhere a man appeared in seafoam green scrubs toting a bright orange bag. The PA looked at him and nodded, and he quickly set to work.

"Perfect timing, Johnson," She chimed. "Everybody hold of for a sec, let's get him intubated."

There was a moment that followed the anesthesiologist placing the tube that made time stop for the billionaire CEO.

"A-Anzu, I don't have a pulse." A medicine resident shook their head and looked up frightfully at the woman as she began doing compressions again.

"Charging," Came the firm reply from the female in the white lab coat. "Everybody clear!" She waited for a half second.

From all around the gurney, everyone removed their hands, raising them above the gurney and chorused, "Clear!"

For a split second, Azure met azure, but it was overlooked as the female brunette looked down at her charge, using the paddles to jolt her young patient.

"C'mon, Mokuba," She nearly growled, handing off the paddles to the nurse who had administered epi.

It was nearly quiet enough for a pin to drop.

_Beep._

_Beep._

_Beep._

_Beep._

"He's in v-tach."

"Somebody check for a pulse!"

When no one moved fast enough, she moved in herself, grabbing the unresponsive boy's wrist and gripping it tightly. Another nurse moved for his neck.

"I've got a pulse." She breathed quietly, a sigh of relief evident.

And suddenly everything became a whirlwind.

"Carlin," The brunette addressed. "OR five should be ready. We've gotta take him now. I want this spleen out, we need a chest tube, there's definitely internal bleeding-" She motioned to the bloody suction setup's container that pulled fluids from the boy's insides. "Somebody call ortho and tell them to check what we had so far. It should be enough for them to fix these breaks." A lesser doctor nodded and the two watched him head to the phone.

The attending nodded, immediately looking toward the woman with a curt nod. "Anzu, we've got to stop meeting like this."

She cracked a wry smile, and looked to the CT Nurse. "Good call, Christiana. Tell the supervisor to move faster next time, I'm not waiting for her to come down from three." Sparkling blue eyes met that of her comrade next, their cool color surprisingly hot with anger. "Carlin, what the hell were you thinking?" She barely motioned to the CEO that stood behind him, now looking an unhealthy combination of enraged and terrified.

The attending physician turned around to the shocked face of his patient's brother. "Son, we can only give you about thirty seconds before we're going to take him to surgery. You can walk with us, but he can't wait."

"Somebody get me a blanket," Came the woman's voice. A white fluffy blanket was produced and covered the otherwise battered boy from where his gown had been ripped to place the pads for the defibrillator.

Somewhere along the way, Kaiba had nodded, and he followed the man out into the hallway while a nurse followed them, pushing the bed. The doctor and his PA followed, saying nothing as the business man grabbed at his brother's hand, his face revealing nothing and his eyes revealing everything.

It had seemed like they had barely begun walking when they had reached the recovery room doors. Kaiba looked to the doctor with steely yet emotional eyes, silently questioning how much further he could to before getting resistance.

"We need to scrub in," Arthur cast a sideways glance at his the nurse pushing the gurney. "Tell the PACU to have him ready in no more than five minutes."

She nodded and the three healthcare professionals turned the other way, pretending not to notice the choked back sound that could only have been a sob from a man that had been deemed heartless for well over the last decade. "Art, you go. I'll meet you in once I talk to him." She motioned to the tall man beside the gurney. "I'll get the paperwork taken care of."

"Thanks, Anz," the doctor nodded curtly to the leader of KaibaCorp before walking briskly through a set of automatic sliding doors that was littered with 'Employee's Only – Access limited to Authorized Personnel Only' signs.

The first thing the white coated woman did after her young charge was pushed through the recovery room doors was turn to his brother, whose emotions were clearly unchecked if his eyes were any indication.

"Mr. Kaiba," She began, speaking as calmly as possible – trying to keep it from being personal, since things were probably already about to go to hell, "I need your signature on his surgical consents."

He turned on her with a speed she never remembered him possessing, his eyes wild as he all but pushed her into the wall. "Consents for _what_?"

Anzu blinked, recognizing the hospital's effect on even the most collected people in the world. He was undoubtedly in shock. "We're removing his spleen, possibly sewing his lung up, depending on the pneumo and the ortho doctors will most likely be looking for you any time now to discuss whatever procedures he needs for his broken extremities. What Doctor Carlin and I are doing now are addressing all of the life threatening issues that are going on. His body is in shock. We need this signed now before things get delayed." She motioned to the double doors. "That episode back in CT won't be the last one if we don't get moving."

Producing the paper and a pen, she felt her eyes widen as she watched him snatch the paper and sign where it was highlighted, not bothering to read the top of the paper where all the risks and details regarding procedures of this nature were outlined. "There," he growled, handing it back to her.

She flipped it over and handed it back to him, along with her pen. "We want consent to use blood products as well." His traditional articulate scrawl was considerably shaky. She took the paper, opened one of the recovery room doors slightly, and an orderly appeared to take the paper. She nodded her assent to him then threw her head in the direction of a clear door on the other side of the unit, behind a disorganized nurse's station. "Carlin want's him gone yesterday. Get him out of there."

When she turned away from the door, she noticed Kaiba's eyes looking incredibly bloodshot and chose to say nothing. Instead she brushed by him, grabbing his sleeve as she passed. "I'll show you where the waiting room is," She ventured gently, making sure he was following before she continued walking down the hallway from which they had come.

It was only when they reached the doors to the empty trauma/surgical waiting room that the CEO turned to the brunette. "I heard them say your name, but who are you exactly?" He asked, when she moved to shake his hand.

"It's probably better that you don't," Anzu replied, silently grateful that today's lab coat didn't have her name embroidered on it like her others. "It's the law though," She sighed, and made sure they were no longer shaking hands when he continued, out of fear that his grip would crush it. "You know me," she continued, shrugging nonchalantly. "It's been awhile. Anzu, Anzu Mazaki, PA-RPC to Doctor Arthur Carlin." She pulled her hospital ID out of her pocket.

She knew the moment that the pieces had come together in his mind. The look of rage and hatred was so unbearable, Anzu thought for a moment that the floor was going to open up beneath her and drop her into the most fiery ring of hell.

When he did speak, his eyes were the iciest she had ever seen, pupils dialated, further bringing out the stark contrast in the electric blue of his irises. "There is _no way in hell_," He ground out, his tone dangerously low, "That _you_ of all people are taking care of _my_ brother."

Anzu didn't sigh this time, hearing her name overhead via the intercom system. Her cerulean blues were hard as they matched his unmasked glare. "You're going to," She said, matching his low rumbling voice with a medium alto of her own. "Because Mokuba is going to die if you refuse to let me."

"There's another doctor in there with him."

"He's the only trauma surgeon on until seven in the morning." Anzu gave him a weak glare as she tapped her foot impatiently. "If you can wait four hours and hope your brother's heart doesn't stop beating, good for you, you've got more foolish pride than I anticipated. Surgery of this caliber is a two person job."

Seto Kaiba did push her against the wall this time, with a force Anzu didn't expect. She didn't struggle against him, instead, she kept her eyes on his. "You trust yourself with _my _brother's life?"

Anzu grasped his forearms over his black silk shirt. With force he hadn't anticipated, she removed his hands and ducked out of his hold. "That's my job." She paused, gesturing to a chair near the doorway, waiting until he sat down to continue. "You could've sent him to BMC," She searched his eyes, knowing she had him there. NYU's medical center was considered to be of a higher standard of care. "There are risks to any operation. I've seen plenty of these kinds of cases before. Just let me do my job."

After a moment of no resistance, she swept her eyes over him, taking in the suddenly defeated posture of her patient's only family. "Call Isono," she said, recalling the old man that was sure to still be in Kaiba's employ. "Have him bring you some coffee, and something to keep you busy."

He looked up at her, surprised by her words when he had just nearly assaulted her. "Mazaki," he called, when she was halfway to the door.

"Hmm?"

"Take care of him." Though she didn't hear him say it, she could hear the 'he's all I've got' that hung at the end of his short sentence.

She turned completely to face him, striding toward him until she was directly in front of her once arch-nemesis. _Oh, how things have changed,_ she thought drly as she steeled herself mentally, preparing for the first operation of her career that would be on someone that she cared about tremendously.

She gave his interlocked hands a tentative squeeze. "You have my word," she breathed. "We'll do everything we can." She made sure his eyes were locked on hers as she continued. "We'll get him through this."

As the PA stepped out of the waiting room, passing Isono who gave her a surprised glance from behind what she figured were the same sunglasses from Battle City, she prayed to the powers that be that she wouldn't be made a liar.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes: Thank you all for your lovely reviews, follows, hits, and support. Sorry to take so long to update, it can be difficult to come home from your job and write a story that is the spawn of it. As always, please feel free to drop me a line, and if I you don't understand some of the terms or feel I don't use them correctly, please contact me via review or pm. This chapter includes a few procedures and some equipment that might be a little confusing. I tried to make sure I explained it well enough that you shouldn't need to look anything up.

**Leads You Home**

A Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction

Author: Distant Storm

Pairing/Shipping: Seto x Anzu; Azureshipping

XXX

They hadn't been able to excabate young Mokuba after his emergency surgery, and the pressure in his head required a ventriculostomy for the time being. He currently occupied a surprisingly large bed in a very large room with a white framed sliding glass door that could come unhinged if the patient it guarded needed to leave the unit for a test that couldn't be done in the room as a portable study. The room was located all the way at the end of the unit, tucked away in a corner that could be accessed quickly by the back set of doors if one did not wish to walk all the way through the unit. The unit's supervisor had done this with the patient and his only living family member in mind; Making a spectacle out of the Kaiba family would be a very costly mistake. Surely someone would end up fired, and if angered enough, the elder Kaiba could probably purchase the hospital and run it into the ground. Newer staff all throughout the hospital were on edge because of the Casanova CEO's presence. More experienced staff kept their chatter to break rooms and the corners of a comatose patient's room, speaking in hushed tones about the location of the world's youngest billionaire and the situation he found himself in. Talk only skirted around the status of his young brother, as the staff knew full well that if at any time they were to honor their Hippocratic Oath right, this would be it.

It was bad enough that Anzu had to send a med student out to the waiting room to procure the consent for the ventric as well as a central line. She was glad that after five hours and multiple procedures that kept her well past her minimum in-house commitment – thankfully she had gotten _some_ sleep between admissions earlier on - it was her partner, Doctor Carlin, who had to explain that while they had gotten through all of the procedures and fixed whatever pressing issues they could find, they had come close enough to pulling the plug altogether more than once. From what she had been told after transporting their patient to his current room in the trauma intensive care unit, Carlin said that the young man was definitely worse for wear, and he probably wouldn't be leaving anytime soon.

And so, it was with a heavy heart that she personally went out to retrieve her once arch-nemesis (if Jou and Yugi had anything to say about it), and bring him in to see his little brother.

Very rarely did she feel nervous about anything hospital related. She had taken parents into rooms where their children were already dead – or worse, brain dead with the parents left to make the call on an empty shell that looked as though it was breathing on its own through the vent. She'd been doing this for a number of years now, and this was the first time it had been even remotely personal. The feeling of tightness in her chest had to be pushed away though, and she willed herself to take a deep breath before rounding the corner that would make her visible to all parties in the ICU waiting room.

"Mr. Kaiba," She addressed him curtly from the doorway, her black glossy work shoes silent on the tiled floor.

He said nothing, standing up rigidly before leaving his briefcase next to a silent Isono who had taken off his sunglasses and looked pretty haggard as well. She supposed these walls could drain a lot out of a person, but dropped all thoughts not related to business when the brunette man headed her way with quick, graceful strides.

She knew he wouldn't wish to discuss his brother's matters here. Not now, at least, with the steady increase in individuals waiting for visiting hours to begin. Once they had rounded the corner and were a safe distance away from any prying eyes and ears, she faced him, tucking her hands in her pale blue pants pockets as she met his sapphire eyes.

"Arthur filled you in on his condition, yes?" Her English was impeccable, and Kaiba couldn't help but feel like she had spoken this language her entire life, though he knew she hadn't and it was a strange thought to have given the circumstances.

He nodded, not trusting the words to come out of his mouth right or without emotion.

Anzu shifted her weight from foot to foot. "We're transfusing blood now, they want him to have three units of red blood cells, and I've ordered some plasma as well. He's got a lot of things hooked up to him, and it might be a little shocking to see."

Kaiba all but growled at her for insinuating that _he_ of all people would be afraid. It was his fucking brother for Pete's sake! There were more important things at stake. "Get on with it, Mazaki."

"He isn't breathing on his own. We have him hooked up to a ventilator. He's also sedated, and will be for at least a few days."

That threw the businessman for a loop. "What do you mean, he isn't breathing on his own?" The words were punctuated by rising bile in his throat, and he had to take a deep breath to center himself before worrying about how high pitched and weak stomached he sounded in his outburst.

Anzu motioned for him to follow, but waited so that they were side by side. "He underwent major trauma. Things like these happen." Swallowing, she continued. "His body should pick up the slack once it recognizes that it is in no immediate danger. If anything, you _want_ him on that vent, Kaiba. We'll be able to tell when he's breathing on his own enough to come off it."

They headed toward a set of doors with a swipe pad on the door and a black pad above it, lying flush against the wall. Stepping forward, she pulled her ID tag out from her whitecoat pocket and waved it in front of the black pad, waiting for the chip inside it to recognize her and grant them access.

It took about three seconds before a low then higher pitched click echoed through the silent hall, and cold air seemed to rush out to greet them as the Trauma Intensive Care Unit doors opened towards them. To Anzu, the volume was minimal, but to the man beside her, it was excruciating. Bells and whistles seemed to be going off everywhere, from every possible direction, people were talking – and not quietly – and a large group of whitecoats that he presumed were doctors were standing to their left, huddling in a circle around a teal green scrubbed nurse and the open door to his patient's room. Anzu made a right, though, ignoring the group who had yet to notice her, and stopped after two steps to face Seto.

"This way," She said softly, beckoning him towards the right, and away from the pod of ten rooms to their left.

The whole ICU was a large oblong shape, with an octagon shaped counter and desk area in the middle. The right pod was larger than the left by two beds, and made up for it with extra counters that ran perpendicular to rooms that all opened toward the middle. Some of the counters had numbered drawers, others were unlabeled and seemed to be overflowing with wires and cords. The outer perimeter of the counters were lined with forest green binders with metal clipboards on top that had a triplicate flow sheet displayed over the edges of the chart below. The perimeter appeared to be a good six to eight inches higher than the desks area inside it, and Kaiba could see coffee mugs and what appeared to be enough pens and pencils for a small army tucked in the cubical type space beneath the counter. A few nurses sat at rolling chairs within the inner perimeter, appearing to chart on computers with blue and beige background programs though he couldn't see the words from as far away as he was. Phones were on each section of desk, totaling eight that he could see around this side alone. A secretary sat at the desk they passed first, typing frantically while answering the constantly ringing phone.

Daring to peek in one of the rooms as he passed by, Kaiba was rewarded with the sight of an elderly woman, mouth hanging open, with skin drawn taut over her jaw and facial bones. A snow white blanket appeared to make her look like a dead angel, in his opinion, and instead of having a mask over her face like he had expected, there was one over her throat, with blue and frosted plastic tubes draped over a metal arm to connect to a rolling cart that hissed as it released the proper amount of oxygen for each breath. Peering closer as he moved past, he noticed that the rise and fall of her chest was incredibly artificial, and that this room was incredibly colder than the other few he had passed by.

By the time he looked up, Anzu was standing in the doorway of a room with the curtain drawn just enough that the occupant wasn't visible. The foreboding feeling Kaiba got mixed with a surge of anger - he just wanted to get through with it already, the unknown was frightening enough – and he wasn't quite sure how to feel about how much wasn't revealed.

"Mr. Kaiba-"

It felt patronizing every time she addressed him. "Enough, Mazaki. I take it this is his room?" The words sounded surprisingly steady for how unsteady he felt. She sighed dejectedly and took a step back, clearing enough of the open side of the sliding glass door to let her patient's brother through.

He strode into the room with the confidence of the world's youngest and most successful billionaire businessman.

He then proceeded to empty half a gallon of coffee and bile into a conveniently placed sink.

It.

Was.

_**Terrible.**_

Seto didn't know whether to cry or scream, and before he knew it, a series of unstoppable tears escaped from his eyes, breath refusing to come back to him. His brother – his ONLY remaining blood, his reason for living for such a long time – was barely recognizable. If it wasn't for his hair, he wouldn't have known it was Mokuba. There was no blood except the fluids running down from a bag on an IV pole to Mokuba's right, and the greater extent of injuries were covered by a white blanket. He couldn't see his brother's face, at least not more than his forehead, and even that had a white band wrapped around it to tell them how his oxygen saturation was. The rest of his facial skin was dark, marred with bruises and abraisions. The parts covered by the blanket were for his personal benefit, not his brother's, he realized as he recalled how messed up Mokuba's one leg had appeared in the emergency room hours before.

The room seemed to spin before him as he tried to bring himself to look back at his kid brother, and before he knew it, he was forced less than gently into a chair beside the bed. Anzu was crouched down in front of him after he had taken a moment to remember how to breathe, his head in his hands propped up on his knees.

Somewhere in the last few moments, she had completely pulled the curtain shut. "Feel like you're gonna pass out?" If she was put off by his puke breath, she didn't act like it. He shook his head, and she stood up. "The docs are rounding. They typically do this somewhere between seven and eleven each morning. Collect yourself by the time they get to Mokuba's door and stay quiet while they discuss him with his nurse. If you want to know every little detail like I presume you do, you'd be wise to do as I say. He's critical, that much is for sure. We gotta get him through the day, and then the overnight, before we can really talk about forward movement."

A nurse peeled back the curtain just enough to stick her head in. "You guys ready for us?" At Anzu's nod, the curtain was pushed halfway across the door – just enough to accommodate the opening of the sliding door – and they were surrounded by white coats in matching pale blue scrubs matching Anzu's. The woman who opened the door was a short African American woman in emerald green scrubs with black shoes and a black fleece emblazoned with the NYUMC logo and her name, Shanessa. Dyed red hair was pushed back into a ponytail that exposed darker black roots, and the nurse turned to face the whitecoats like she was about to be quizzed.

"Mr. Kaiba was brought in from the OR around oh-nine forty-five," The nurse began, not at all frightened as she met her patient's older brother's eyes. "X-ray called about five minutes ago to confirm that we need to place a chest tube in the left lung, but other than that, all the immediate issues are taken care of. Urine output is a little low, but he hasn't been here too long to consider Bumex. We'll be placing a Dobb Hoff in a little bit to get some food into him."

Moving to join the group of doctors, Anzu began speaking. "His fractures, thus far, appear stable. We might have to go in again for that left ankle, but hopefully, the East Coast will come in and fit him for a brace and we'll be good to go." The brunette spoke efficiently after that, discussing that the cervical collar around Mokuba's neck was to remain in place until directed otherwise, and that the attending neurosurgeon would be in assess him once the results of the CT were posted by the radiology doctors. She peeled back the blanket just enough to give Kaiba a frightening sight of cuts and bruises that marred both legs, as well as wrapped areas that her presumed had been surgically altered. Hearing it discussed so impersonally and amiably kind of bothered him, and he made his mind up to mention it to the nurse once the group of doctors had made their way out of the room.

Falling behind, Anzu looked over to Kaiba, noticing his dazed expression. "If you want notes on anything they do here, just ask Shanessa. She's excellent, and she doesn't mind explaining what any of these monitors do, or what the numbers mean."

"I'm not stupid," Kaiba quipped curtly, looking apprehensive about moving any closer to his kid brother.

She sighed. "I can tell you don't like hospitals," She murmured finally. "Shan will be in to discuss visiting hours and to get all your contact information."

Smoothing out her embroidered coat, Kaiba met her eyes with a cool stare, daring her to speak out to him. He needed someone to yell at, because his unconscious brother was just a victim, and things were starting to come unraveled at both sides. He wanted to see her give him that look of pity she had back in Duelist Kingdom, something, anything that he could twist around to make her the fool, to throw her off the way that her was by all this. He wanted to break something, possibly her face if she came too close. This was all too much.

Instead of rising to his taunting glare, Anzu turned and left the room, before hearing a subsequent crash and a yell of "I need some help in here!"

The only thing he had to take out some anger on after that was the discarded white coat reading "Anzu Mazaki, PA-RPC/RPA on the ground where she had thrown it before pulling a red craftsman toolbox out of a cupboard that ran between Mokuba's room and the empty one across the way and heading down the hall. He kicked the jacket into the hallway, scoffing for good measure.

"Page the anesthesia resident," He heard her announce loudly, her medium alto voice fading as more rushing footsteps headed in the direction that she had. "Tell them we're re-intubating seventeen."

Seconds later, he heard the overhead page for the anesthesiology resident to come to the unit stat.

Things became muffled and quieter after that, and Kaiba slowly mustered up the courage to approach his little brother. The hospital smelled like he remembered it as a child, coming with his father to visit his mother, even though he knew then that she wasn't waking up. He didn't believe in angels anymore, but he knew that his mother would've been the most beautiful. She had midnight black hair and eyes that mirrored Seto's own, while Mokuba was gifted with his father's facial features right down to the eyes.

It took a long time for him to stand, feeling the heaviness of the world come down upon him as his fingers ghosted over the sheets, looking for his brother's right hand. It was cold, he realized as he grasped it gently, as though any excessive force might cause the young man to disintegrate before him. He felt tears and bile come to him all at the same time, and worked hard not to let his feelings show.

Not once in the course of all this did anyone tell him it was going to be okay, or that they were going to get Mokuba through this. Kaiba wasn't born yesterday, he knew that meant things _weren't okay_ and _he could very well DIE._ The thought of this caused disallowed tears to fall from his eyes again, until the point where sobs racked the young CEO's body. He fought against them for the five minutes it took for him to get himself back under control.

Why did everything bad in the world have to happen to them? Bitter thoughts escaped him, leaving him feeling hollow. Hadn't they suffered enough?


End file.
